


One in a 4400

by AGJ1990



Category: Supernatural, The 4400 (TV)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-16
Updated: 2021-01-18
Packaged: 2021-03-14 18:41:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,695
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28800018
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AGJ1990/pseuds/AGJ1990
Summary: Josephine went missing nearly twenty years ago. She hasn't aged a day and has no memory of where she's been. When she literally drops from the sky back into the life of the man who raised her, John Winchester, she again flips his life upside down.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 1





	1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: The characters of Supernatural and The 4400 do not belong to me.**

**A/N: So, I've had the idea for this story for a while. It's a crossover story between The 4400 and Supernatural. I realize that if anyone's come to this story, they likely have a good idea about the basic plots of one or both shows, but I thought I'd give a rundown of both just in case. For those of you who maybe haven't seen The 4400, the basic idea is this-4400 people who have disappeared over 60 years are returned, all at once, to Seattle. No one knows where they've been or what they've been doing. None of the returnees have aged a day or have any memory of where they've been. For anyone reading this who maybe hasn't seen Supernatural, the** _**very** _ **simplified explanation is this-Sam and Dean Winchester are brothers who go around the country taking care of Supernatural threats like demons, werewolves, ghosts, and the like.**

**The 4400 part of the story starts in the next chapter. This one establishes the history of John Winchester and my newest Winchester female, Josephine, also known as "Joey".**

**I thought about making this story another Winchester sister or daughter, but I got another idea. It'll make sense when you read the first chapter.**

**This story does have a basic outline right now, but it does need to be developed out a little more, so updates may be a little slower than usual.**

**As always, I hope everyone is safe and staying healthy.**

**_1973_ **

Mary was completely lost.

John was at work, and three-year-old Joey had been crying all day. She'd cried at breakfast time because she didn't like her pancakes. She'd cried at naptime because she didn't want to go to sleep. She'd cried when waking up because she was hungry. She'd cried when Mary had lost her patience, and then cried when Mary apologized.

Had Joey been able to tell Mary what was really wrong with her, it would've just made her big sister feel worse. Joey was confused. Where was Mommy? Mommy made her breakfast just the way she liked it. Mommy always rocked her at naptime and was there when she woke up to give her a hug. Mommy always had a snack ready when she woke up. Joey knew that Mary was trying, that she didn't mean to be mean and impatient with her, but it had been long enough. Mommy and Daddy both had been gone for days and days, and no one would tell her when they were coming back.

John knew something was wrong the second he walked inside. Mary's parents had been gone for two weeks, and he'd very reluctantly gone back to work that morning. John was grateful for his mother, allowing Mary and little Josephine to come and stay with them 'until they're back on their feet'. Joey had wrapped Millie around her little finger from day one, and John hoped it wouldn't break his mother's heart when the three of them eventually moved out. But his mother was out of town this weekend helping a friend that had just had surgery, so he and Mary were all alone.

Joey was sitting on the couch, holding her teddy bear and rubbing her red eyes, looking generally miserable. The TV was running on low, playing a Loony Toons rerun, but instead of laughing hysterically at Bugs Bunny as she generally did, Joey appeared to not even acknowledge it. John set his keys down on the end table next to the couch and took his seat next to Joey. Joey, who loved John and took every opportunity she could to climb him like a jungle gym, still sat silently.

"Hey, kiddo."

"Hey." Joey said quietly.

"You good? What's going on?"

"Nuffin."

"Yeah? It looks like something. Come on. Maybe I can help."

Joey, ever trying to be brave, looked up with tear-filled eyes and hitching breath. "I not good girl today."

"What are you talking about? You're the best kid in the whole world."

"Nuh uh. Not today."

"What'd you do today?"

"Cried a lot." Joey said. "Made Mawy mad at me."

"I bet she's not mad." John said. "It's okay to cry."

"Not it's not. I's big baby."

Mary had appeared in the doorway separating the kitchen from the living room. John could see the guilt etched on her face, but she shook his head. _Let me take a stab at this._

"Is there a reason you were crying so much?"

"Yeah."

"Can you tell me what it is?"

"Want my mommy." Joey said quietly.

"What was that?" John asked.

"I wants my mommy." Joey said again. "Miss her."

John could see Mary visibly flinch at that. John hadn't said anything, and he didn't agree with it, but Mary had not been very clear with Joey about what had happened to Samuel and Deanna. She'd told the little girl that her mommy and daddy had 'gone up to heaven', but for a little kid whose mommy and daddy were gone on trips all the time, John knew it was a matter of time before she started asking questions.

"When she come back?" Joey asked.

"Jo…" Mary started to say, but John shook her off with a wave of his hand. Mary nodded again. _Let me handle this for you_.

"John? When Mommy and Daddy come back?"

"Listen, kiddo. I have to tell you something, and it's gonna be really hard to hear. But you trust me, right?"

"What trust mean?"

"I won't lie to you. You believe me, right?"

"Yeah."

"Kiddo, I'm sorry. Mommy and Daddy aren't gonna be coming back."

"How come?" Joey asked. "They not want me no more?"

"That is not it." John assured her, picking Joey up and putting her into his lap. "Mommy and Daddy couldn't help it, Joey. They didn't want to leave you, but it couldn't be stopped."

"They miss me too?"

"They sure do, kiddo. But here's the thing. You'll see them again one day."

"I will?"

"Sure."

"They's in heaven? They watch over me?"

"They will. Every single day." John promised. "But from now on, you gotta stay with me and Mary. Okay?"

"Okay. Joey be good girl."

"You are a good girl, kiddo. You just had a bad day today. Both of us forgive you."

Joey looked over to her sister, still standing in the doorway watching them. "I sorry I was bad today, Sissy."

"It's okay, Jojo." Mary said. "I guess I had a bad day too."

"I stay wif you and John?"

"Yeah, kiddo." John said. "You'll stay with me and Mary."

**_1979_ **

John hadn't seen Joey so somber since the day six years earlier when he'd found her crying over her parents. The now third grader was sitting on the couch, picking at her nails as she waited out the twenty minutes until bedtime.

"Hey kiddo. You ready for bed?"

"Yeah."

"Uh oh. I know that look." John said. He took his seat next to her and asked, "What's on your mind?"

"Nothing."

"We really gonna go through that routine?" John asked.

Joey sighed. If she didn't answer John, he'd just hound her until she did. "I'm scared of the baby coming."

"Scared of what?"

"You guys are just gonna forget about me." Joey said.

"We're not gonna forget about you." John promised.

"Yeah, you will. I'm not even your kid."

"Hey! Don't say that."

"What? It's true."

"We couldn't forget about you even if we wanted to." John assured her. "And you are _our_ kid. And if you want me to prove it, we can be having a different kind of talk if I catch you saying something like that again. Catch my drift?"

Joey flinched. John and Mary had both spanked her before, but not often and not enough that she feared admitting her mistakes to them. The unspoken house rule had become that if you told the truth, you didn't generally get in trouble. But when Joey looked at John, she saw nothing but love and concern there.

"Got it."

"Hey." John said, a little gentler. "I won't lie and say it won't be different with the baby here. But we're still here for you. You still gotta go to school, follow the house rules, we'll still do game nights, all that. Okay?"

"Okay." Joey said, finally relaxing. "Thanks."

"You're welcome, kiddo." John leaned over and kissed her cheek. "Want me to tuck you in?"

"You promise you won't stop that either? After the baby gets here?"

"As long as you want me too, I'll tuck you in at night. As long as _you_ promise you won't forget what we talked about. Deal?"

"Deal."

"Go on up to bed. Tell your sister good night."

"Jojo?" Mary said, appearing from the kitchen and breathing deeply. "Go grab my bag from under the bed."

"Is it time?"

"It's time."

**_1983_ **

Once again, her family had fallen completely apart.

Mary had been dead for six weeks. Christmas was coming, but Joey knew that John had done almost nothing to prepare for it. He left the house every night and came back smelling bad and talking funny. Taking care of four-year-old Dean and baby Sammy was now completely on her.

She'd tried to confront John about it one night, telling him that he had three kids who needed him now, he wasn't the only one hurting, and he needed to help her. The only thing she'd been left with as a result of her efforts was a red handprint on her cheek. The next morning, a regretful John had sat her down. He frowned when she flinched as he examined her cheek.

"Does it still hurt?"

"No." Joey lied.

John could tell she was lying, but he didn't call her on it. He handed her the ice pack he'd made. "Hold this to it."

Joey held the ice loosely to her cheek, looking in any direction but John's face. He was a stranger to her now, and she'd never felt lonelier than she did just then.

"Kiddo, please look at me."

Joey looked at him after taking a look at the sleeping Sam and Dean. Dean was keeping a tight hold on baby Sam, who was tightly sucking his thumb. For the first time in weeks, she saw a glimpse of the John she'd grown up with. He wasn't the angry, vengeful man that had been coming home every night since November third. He was the caring, loving man who'd been there nearly every night since she was two and a half years old. The same John who'd built a swing set for her, who taught her how to ride a bike, who'd taught her how to stand up to bullies in school but told her that she'd never have to do it on her own.

"I'm sorry."

"It's okay." Joey said quietly.

"No. It's not. I'm sorry, and that won't happen again. Okay?"

"Okay."

"Look, I need to talk to you about something." John said. "I'm going after what killed Mary."

"Going after…What do you mean? Mary died in a house fire."

"No. She didn't, kiddo. That was more than a fire."

"What do you mean?" Joey asked. "Did you see something?"

"I can't really tell you."

"What do you mean you can't tell me?" Joey asked angrily. "She's my sister, I deserve to know."

"Please just trust me. I promise that one day I will tell you. But not now. I have to sort it out in my own head first. But I need your help."

"Help with what?"

"I'm gonna need a lot of help with Sam and Dean. Can you do that?" John asked.

"Sure. What about while I'm at school?"

"I'll figure that out." John promised. "But there's probably gonna be some afternoons after you get out of school that I'll be gone. I'll need you to make sure the boys get dinner, get a bath, and get to bed."

"I can do that."

"Good." John said, relieved. "Thank you, kiddo."

"Can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

Joey took a deep breath. She'd been thinking about this since long before Mary died, but now it felt right. John was the only family she had left.

"Can I call you Dad?"

A shocked John's mouth failed to work, refusing to do anything but go up and down.

"I've been thinking about it for a while. If you'd rather I didn't, it's okay, I won't, but…"

"I'd love that, kiddo. But only if you're sure."

"I'm sure." Joey said. "I love you…Dad."

"I love you too, kiddo."

**_1986_ **

"Daddy?"

"Dean, what's wrong?" John asked. "I'm on a hunt."

"Joey never came home."

John's heart started pounding immediately. "What do you mean Joey never came home?"

"She went to get us dinner but she never came back."

John checked the clock and exploded. "Dean, it's nearly ten o'clock! Why didn't you call me earlier?"

A stuttering Dean sounded like he was barely holding back tears. "I'm sorry."

John took a deep, calming breath before replying. "I'm sorry, Dean. Has she been gone for a while?"

"Yes, sir. I would have gone to look for her, b…but…"

"But someone needed to stay there with Sammy?"

"Yes, sir." Dean said. "I'm sorry, Daddy."

"Don't be sorry, Dean. You did the right thing. I'm sorry I blew up at you." John frustratedly ran his hands through his hair. "I'll be back soon, Dean. Lock the door and get Sammy ready for bed, okay?"

"Yes, sir."

"And Dean? Do not, for any reason, open that door for anyone. Even if it's Joey. If Joey does come back, you tell her I said to go to a payphone, call me, and stay there. Do you understand?"

"Yes, sir." Dean said. "Daddy, will you be back before the sun comes up?"

John quickly did the math. It was ten minutes after ten at night, and the sun would be up in less than eight hours. He was seven hours away with no traffic.

"Yes, Dean. I'll be back before the sun's up. Get Sammy in bed, then you go to bed. I'll be back."

"Okay, Daddy. Good night."

"Good night, Dean."

John hung up the phone, his emotions raging. The anger was masking the worry. Three years on the road had begun to wear down the usually docile and obedient Joey. Before he'd taken the hunt he was currently on, Joey had refused to take care of Sam and Dean this time. She was tired, she said, of 'raising kids that weren't hers' and she wanted 'to spend just two days being her own kid'.

John hadn't reacted well.

A screaming match ensued, and John reminded Joey that taking care of Sam and Dean was 'her job' and if she didn't do it he didn't 'have to keep her' and would drop her off at the nearest foster care agency. John had seen the hurt on Joey's face when he said that, but he hadn't backed down. He knew that it worried her that one day he would abandon her, leave her somewhere to make it easier to find the thing that killed Mary. Joey had then laid what she thought was her trump card.

"I'll run away."

Two threats and a spanking later, John had made his position clear. Running away didn't mean John would abandon Joey. Just the opposite-she would be on a lockdown that she had never dreamed of before, she'd be held accountable the second she stepped a toe out of line, and she would grow to truly hate him. Joey had backed down in the end, but not before John was already feeling guilty. Confident that he would have time to make it up to her when he returned from the hunt, John had left.

Now he wondered if he'd get the chance.

"Joey, I swear, you better be okay."


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: This isn’t a very long chapter. Joey and John reunite. I’ll go into more detail about what exactly happened when Joey disappeared in the next chapter.**

The crowd of people milling around her only showed Josephine Campbell one thing. She was well and truly alone now. The ID number she found out she’d been given upon returning weeks earlier confirmed it.

Returnee number 2304.

When she realized that the car wasn’t there, Joey took her seat on a bench on the outskirts of the crowd. She watched as people were reunited with their families, including her friend Shawn. Shawn had been the only friend she’d had while in quarantine, and the closest she’d ever come to revealing the truth about her life. She chuckled as she thought back to her exact words to him.

“Basically, my mom and dad died, my sister and her husband took me in.”

That was the bare bones of the _actual_ story. The version she had used before, in the seven or eight times that John had moved with her and the boys after Mary’s death, was that her mother died when she was little and she’d been raised by her father. That version was what felt true to her, so it was the one she told the most.

Yeah. It was complicated.

As the crowd started to thin out, Joey considered going to the office that she’d been directed to when she and her other returnees had been told they were being released. She could get living expenses, help finding a job, and get her own start in life. Joey figured she could easily pass for eighteen.

Or, she decided, maybe she could also pass for fifteen. Maybe foster care and a family wouldn’t be so bad.

Joey pulled the only thing she had with her when she’d arrived out of her pocket. It was a faded photograph, one that she’d had in her pocket when she went missing and had looked at over and over throughout the past weeks. Nine years old in the photo, she sat on the couch between John and Mary, a four-year-old Dean on her lap while Mary held a three-month-old Sam in her arms. It was the closest to a family picture the five of them had ever taken, and it was the closest she ever remembered feeling to peace.

Dean had been attached to her at the hip. He followed everything his ‘sissy Jojo’ did with a look of admiration that Joey had held onto the past weeks. Even on the days she felt nothing but resentment that no one had come looking for her, she’d hear little Dean’s voice in her head.

“I love you, Sissy Jojo!”

“Joey!”

Startled out of her memories by someone calling her name, she thought, for the briefest of moments, that her wish had come true. John had come to get her. Even after the nasty fight they’d had right before she went missing, John was still alive and he would be there to get her.

“Joey! Hey!”

“Oh.” Joey said, trying not to sound disappointed. “Hi, Shawn.”

“Hey. Has anyone come for you?”

“Um, no. I guess not.” Joey said. She shrugged. “It’s been a while, though. I wasn’t really expecting anyone.”

“Well, look. I talked to my mom. She said you could come stay with us for a while. Get on your feet, maybe look for a family or get your own place. You interested?”

“Really? Your mom barely knows me, though.”

Shawn smiled. “She’s kind of a sucker for strays. People or animals, doesn’t really matter. Plus I told her we got to be friends in quarantine, you’re pretty much her adopted kid now.”

Joey smiled. She looked over a few feet to the left. A kind woman that reminded Joey of an older version of Mary was smiling at her. This had to be Shawn’s mother Susan. Next to her was another boy that looked similar to Shawn, who she guessed was Shawn’s brother Danny. Joey waved back and made her decision.

“Sure.”

“Great. Come on. You’ll love my mom.” Shawn encouraged.

Joey took a breath and walked over. “Hi, Mrs. Farrell. Thanks for letting me stay with you.” she said timidly.

“Hi, sweetheart. You go right ahead and call me Susan, okay? This here is Danny.”

“Hi.” Danny said, politely enough.

“Hey.” Joey couldn’t help but notice the scowl on Danny’s face. Not that she could blame him.

“Well, why don’t we go on to the house?” Susan suggested. “Get you and Shawn some time to freshen up and get a good dinner in you.”

“That sounds great.” Joey said honestly.

It was then that she spotted it. How it had survived nearly fifty years, she had no idea. But the familiar, shiny black exterior of the Impala was at the far end of the street. Two people were standing beside it, one she recognized and one she didn’t. At least right away.

“No way.”

“Joey? You okay?” Shawn asked.

“They came.”

“Who…?” Shawn then noticed where Joey was looking. “Is that your family?”

“Yeah. I, um, I gotta go.” Joey looked towards Susan. “Thank you for the offer, but…”

“Go on, honey. Come see us anytime, okay?”

Joey was almost afraid to turn back to the car, but this time someone was making their way towards her. She didn’t want to hope that it was real, for fear that finding out the truth would crush her. But she ran full force towards him.   
  


It was John. He was twenty years older, with much more facial hair than she remembered, but it was definitely him. She stopped just short of him, staring at him, afraid to touch him. It was John that spoke first.

“Jo?”

“You came.” Joey said. “You really came.”

“Of course I did, sweetheart.”

Joey suddenly grabbed John around the waist in a tight hug and started sobbing. “I’m sorry.”

“Sorry for what?”

“The fight.” Joey said. “The one we had before you left.” To her surprise, Joey felt John chuckle. “What’s so funny?”

“Honey, don’t even think about that. That fight was twenty years ago.”

“Oh. Right.”

Joey sniffed and wiped her eyes. The time difference still blew her mind. In her brain, it was still 1986. Sam was three and Dean was seven. She’d realized one day in quarantine that that would no longer be the case, but facing the two of them as adults was something she wasn’t sure she’d ever be able to deal with. “I’m still getting used to that.”

“What happened to you?” John asked. The question had been burning in his brain ever since the day he’d realized he wouldn’t find Joey.

“Can we talk about it later? Please? I’m really tired and just want to go home.”

“Sure, kiddo. Come on, let’s go.”

“Who’s that by the car?” Joey asked as they turned around and started to walk back.

John laughed again. “Take a close look.”

Joey’s mouth flew open. “No way. Dean?”

The two of them were close enough that Dean heard Joey. He smirked and waved. “Hey, Jojo.”

“Oh my…What the…I don’t even know what to say.”

“Let’s get somewhere and talk first. How’s that sound?” John suggested.

Joey nodded, and her stomach grumbled loudly. “Can we get some food?”

“That sounds like a plan.” Dean said. “Pie?” 


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Joey and John talk about what happened to her. Joey catches up on things since 1986, and starts to realize just how behind she is.**

**The next chapter or two is Joey getting back on her feet, then a mix of the plots between The 4400 and Supernatural (probably more Supernatural since I'm a lot more familiar with that show).**

"Sam's in _college_?"

"Yeah."

Dean took another sip of his coffee and nodded his head. Joey leaned back in her seat, her appetite long gone when she realized exactly how much time had passed. The few photographs that John and Dean carried with them were more than enough to show her. The more that she saw them, the more she felt left behind. Dean continued to talk to her, but Joey could barely keep up. It seemed as if the more Dean talked, the further away Joey was.

Even the time felt different. It was dinnertime, but the café was much fuller than she remembered restaurants being at this time of night on a weekday before. She remembered feeling jealous of other kids, eating homecooked dinners in a house with their families.

Maybe that was something that had faded with time.

She also saw cell phones everywhere. It seemed like everyone in the room had one. While she remembered cell phones in 1986, they had been something you only had if you had a lot of money.

Apparently, that had changed too.

"Dean?" John said. "Why don't you head back to the room?"

Dean, who'd been in the middle of telling Joey some story, suddenly seemed disappointed. "But…"

"Joey and I'll walk back soon. Just go get the room, okay?"

"Yes, sir." Dean said. He stood up and turned to Joey one more time. "I'm glad your back."

Joey smiled. At least Dean seemed sincere about it. "Thanks."

As Dean left, Joey went back to picking at her food. John had asked to order for her, and she was surprised he remembered her favorites. Grilled cheese with macaroni in the middle, carrot sticks with ranch for a snack, and chocolate milk. She remembered John's hatred before of her or the boys playing with their food, but she couldn't help it now. She felt lost, like she was dangling on the edge of a cliff. While she had someone there to help her, they couldn't get her back on her feet. She had to do that on her own.

"Hey. Talk to me, kiddo."

Joey smiled and took a carrot stick. "About what?"

"How about the questions you've been dying to ask me that you didn't want to ask in front of Dean?"

"How'd you know about that?"

"I know everything." John said dryly, then smiled when Joey giggled. "God, I missed that sound."

"What sound?"

"You laughing like that."

Joey took a deep breath. "Does Sammy remember me?"

"Yes. I'm not sure how clear it is. He remembers more about you than he does about his mother."

"What happened to them? Did they get hurt or anything that night?"

"No. No, they were fine. Dean waited for you for a while, then he called me and brought me home." John assured her. "I got back to them before the sun came up the next day."

Joey exhaled hard. She'd been feeling guilty now for six weeks thinking about what had happened to Sam and Dean after she disappeared. "Good."

"Will you please tell me what happened that night?"

Joey frowned and shook her head. "Please not yet. Just give me a day or two to adjust to being back."

"Okay. Well, I have something to say to you." John said. He turned and took Joey's hand. "I'm so sorry, Joey. I looked for you for months. I didn't sleep, I chased down everything I thought was a lead, I did whatever I knew to do. I even reported you missing to the police."

"You did?"

"I did."

"You could've gotten in big trouble for that."

"I didn't care. I still _don't_ care. I just wanted my Jojo back."

Joey laughed. "You and Dean are the only ones that still call me that."

"That's not true. Sam still does. At least he did until he left."

"Yeah. Speaking of me disappearing, what happened there?" Joey asked. "Why do I get the feeling Sam's not just away at college?"

"Because he's not." John turned and took another sip of his coffee.

"I'll make you a deal. You tell me what really happened with Sam, why you told him not to come back," at John's surprised look, Joey simply shrugged and smiled, "and I'll tell you everything I remember about the night I disappeared."

John exhaled hard and put his coffee cup down. "You always did drive a hard bargain. Fine."

"That was easy."

John gathered his thoughts, then answered sadly, "We got in a fight. He wanted to go to school, I wanted him to stay and hunt. I was afraid that, if he left, I wouldn't be able to protect him."

"From what Dean was saying earlier, he grew into a pretty strong kid."

"Yeah. He did. But after…" John became choked up, and took a sip of his coffee to try and hide it from Joey.

It took a moment for Joey to realize what he meant. "After me? After I disappeared?"

"Yeah. After you. I wanted Sam and Dean to stay as safe as I could."

"Let me guess. You pretty much kept them under lockdown."

"Yep."

"And it worked okay with Dean, but not with Sammy."

"Bingo."

"So, how does that translate to never seeing him once he's out of the house, so to speak?" Joey asked, picking up another carrot stick to eat.

"His senior year, he applied to colleges. He got in, full scholarship to Stanford."

"Wow. Way to go, Sammy!"

"And while I agree with you on that, all I could think about when he told me was how he'd be unprotected. If I didn't know where he was, I couldn't make sure he was safe. So I told him he couldn't go, he told me he was going anyway, stuff got said, and he's gone now."

"Let me guess. You told him that if he left, he couldn't come back."

"How'd you know?"

"Good guess." Joey said. "You didn't mean that, did you?"

John sighed. "Yes and no. I meant it when I told him he couldn't keep hunting and go to school. But I didn't mean that I didn't care about him anymore."

"Does he know that? Have you talked to him?"

"I've thought about it a thousand times. I go to see him every chance I get. He doesn't know I'm there, but I make sure he's okay. I check on him, put a little money in his bank account, a few times I've paid his rent for the semester and asked the school to tell him he was rewarded a grant. But I'm afraid that if I talk to him, he'll feel guilty and want to leave. He'll want to leave school and come back to Dean and me."

"And you want him to stay where he is."

"Yeah. It's his shot. His shot to be happy. I want that more than anything." John said. "I want one of us to have that."

"Hey. You did good." Joey said. "Just promise me you won't keep it this way. The second Sam graduates, you'll tell him what you just told me. Don't let him keep thinking you don't care about him."

"We'll see." John said. He did understand Joey's concern, but that wasn't his main worry now. "Your turn."

"Well, there really isn't much to tell." Joey said. "I told Dean to watch Sammy. That I was going to the grocery store to get us all some dinner. I left the room and turned the corner, and I saw this…this weird light."

"A light?"

"Yeah. At first I thought it was someone holding a flashlight or something. Then I realized it was coming right at me, so I turned around to try to head to the room. Next thing I know, I was being lifted off my feet. Next thing I know after that, it's almost twenty years later and I'm in Seattle."

"You really don't remember anything? From that night until you landed on that lake?"

"Nothing." Joey said.

"Okay. Okay." John answered, chewing the information over.

"Did you ever find it?"

"Find what, kiddo?"

"Whatever killed Mary."

The guilt on John's face immediately hurt Joey. "No. I haven't. I have my suspicions, but I don't know for sure."

"Why do I get the feeling you're not telling me the whole truth?"

"Let's worry about you right now." John half suggested, half ordered. "Finish your dinner."

"Yes, sir." Joey said. Another few seconds passed in silence before Joey spoke again. "John? You know that they're gonna be watching me right? NTAC? I'm supposed to check in every week and go for a quarterly checkup. I asked and they said I could check in by phone…"

"We'll manage." John said. "I'm just glad you're back, kiddo."

Joey smiled again. "You know, while I was in quarantine, I kept having dreams. I had one last night. Something I hadn't thought about in a while."

"What's that?"

"You remember what you made me for my birthday? When I turned three?"

John snorted. "That board thing?"

"Yeah. It had a doorknob, a disconnected phone, a deadbolt…"

"I remember. You played with that thing for years."

"Yeah. That was the coolest toy I had." Joey said.

"What made you think of that?"

"I'm not sure. I guess I just thought about it 'cause I was missing you so much."

"Oh, sweetie. We missed you too." John said. "We missed you so much."

Joey grabbed John around the waist. "I'm scared."

"Scared of what?"

"Scared I'll go missing again. Scared of what happened to me, what it all means…"

"Hey. Shhh, calm down. It's okay. I've got you." John said. "Listen to me. We've got a plan. A plan to keep you safe."

"Me or Dean's gonna be with you all the time. We won't let anything bad happen to you. We're going to wait a day, talk about what to do as far as school goes…"

"I want to take the GED." Joey said. "I don't even want to think about starting over in school again."

"We can do that." John promised, relieved. He hadn't been looking forward to dealing with school issues again either. "But as for everything else, we'll deal with it when it comes. You're back with us. For good. Okay?"

"Okay."

"Come on. Let's go back to the room. Get you a shower and get you to bed. Sound good?"

"Yeah. Yeah, that sounds good."


End file.
